There are many forms of repair and maintenance shops in which compressed air is utilized to drive various tools and in which it is sometimes desired to detach a pneumatic tool from an air line and attach a blow gun to the air line in order that certain repair or maintenance procedures requiring a jet discharge of air may be carried out.
Conventionally, the outlet ends of air lines are provided with disconnect couplers whereby a pneumatic tool and blow gun may be quickly interchanged on the discharge end of the air line.
However, if a person utilizing a pneumatic tool wishes to use a blow gun between successive uses of the pneumatic tool, after the first use of the pneumatic tool he must then disconnect the pneumatic tool and attach a blow gun to the discharge end of the air line. Thereafter, the blow gun may be used. However, before the pneumatic tool may again be used, the blow gun must be disconnected from the discharge end of the air line and the pneumatic tool must be reconnected to the discharge end of the air line. This series of successive steps is time consuming and results in multiple handling of a pneumatic tool and the blow gun throughout a given period requiring the use of both a pneumatic tool and a blow gun and can sometimes result in the pneumatic tool or blow gun being dropped or otherwise damaged as a result of its being repeatedly manually handled. In addition, the quick disconnect coupling on the discharge end of the air line is repeatedly subjected to disconnect and connect operations resulting in a shortened operating life of the coupling.
Accordingly, a need exists for structure whereby both a pneumatic tool and a blow gun may be simultaneously coupled to the discharge end of an air line while still maintaining the ability of utilizing alternate pneumatic tools on the discharge end of the air line.
Examples of couplings and blow guns as well as similar structures including some of the basic structural and operational features of the instant invention are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,389,539, 1,477,353, 1,667,699, 2,252,141, 2,633,324, and 3,661,182.